CHICAGO — Restaurant traffic, still feeling the impact of rising unemployment and thrifty consumers, declined during the spring quarter ended May 2009, according to market research company The NPD Group. NPD's Consumer Reports on Eating Share Trends (CREST) indicated that total restaurant-industry traffic declined 2.6 percent for this year's spring quarter vs. the same quarter last year. It is the sharpest decline in industry traffic since 1981.
According to NPD's CREST, consumers, especially households with children, cut back their visits to all segments of restaurants. Parties including children, which represent a third of industry traffic, and adults from households with children, have been cutting back on restaurant visits for the last three quarters. More than half of the industry's decline this past quarter traced to fewer supper visits from parties with kids. Visits by adults in households without children were stable.
Traffic was down 2 percent at quick-service restaurants, marking seven of the last nine months with declining customer counts. Casual dining declined 4 percent, and midscale was down 6 percent. While checks rose 2 percent in the quarter, the rate of increase failed to offset the decline in traffic, yielding a 1 percent decline in consumer spending at commercial foodservice this quarter.
"The commercial foodservice industry has been struggling since last fall, and it appears that as unemployment increases the struggle is increasing," said Arnie Schwartz, president of U.S. foodservice at NPD. "Dealing, value menus and attractive price points seem to be supporting some operators who are holding on. Menu innovations in the fast casual and QSR segments have also helped to capture occasions."
NPD also reports that the total number of restaurant units in the United States declined this spring from last spring. NPD's ReCount, a census of commercial restaurant locations in the United States compiled in the spring and fall each year, shows restaurant-industry units down 1 percent, or about 4,000 units, in spring 2009 compared to no growth in spring 2008.
